Burrow, J. A.
Claude Rawson, ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Poets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 20-36.
Introduces Chaucer's life and describes each of his major works in chronological order, identifying the French context of BD, the Italian travels and reading that influenced him later, the philosophical concerns of TC, and his self-representations in…
Nelles, William, and Evelyn Newlyn.
Charles E. May, ed. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. 2nd rev. ed. Vol. 2, Italo Calvino--Louise Erdrich (Pasadena, Calif.: Salem, 2001), pp. 518-31.
Introduces Chaucer's life and works, emphasizing the "scope and diversity" of his poetry. Describes each of his major works, and anatomizes CT as "one of the earliest collections of short stories of almost every conceivable type," describing the…
Describes Chaucer's life and works, with an introduction to historical backgrounds, a chronology of events, a summary of critical reception, a bibliography for further reading, and an index. The biography emphasizes dates and events, and the survey…
Dean, James M., ed.
Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press, 2017.
Collection of essays that explores various literary aspects of Chaucer's oeuvre, with particular focus on the "international motif" and "transnational" themes found in many works. Essays address critical contexts and readings to help understand…
Barrington, Candace.
Candace Barrington and Sebastian Sobecki, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Law and Literature (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 135-47.
Reviews Chaucer’s experience with law and legal proceedings, and argues that in his poetry he "questions the fourteenth-century English legal system" and critiques its tendencies to favor the powerful. Focuses on "virtuous women undone or ignored…
Dunn, Charles W.
In Frank N. Magill, ed. Cyclopedia of World Literature (New York: Harper, 1958), pp. 204-06.
Lists Chaucer's works in chronological order, summarizes his career as a civil servant and poet, and offers a brief list of bibliographical references.
Turner, Marion.
Raluca Radulescu and Sif Rikhardsdottir, eds. The Routledge Companion to Medieval English Literature (New York: Routledge, 2022), pp. 278-88.
Shows how Chaucer's life and literature were "embedded in European contexts," even as he "ostentatiously displays the Englishness of his poetry." Comments generally on Continental and English aspects of Chaucer's style and content, and examines how…
Bloom, Harold, ed.
Philadelphia : Chelsea House, 2003.
Five essays by various authors, a brief introduction by the editor, a chronology, and selective bibliographies on Chaucer's work, primary and secondary. Three essays are reprints (George L. Kittredge's on the marriage group; Larry D. Benson's on…
Although technically a "second edition," Payne's "Geoffrey Chaucer" is essentially a new book, having little in common with the first Twayne Chaucer, written by Edwin J. Howard and published in 1964. Payne's seven chapters treat Chaucer's life,…
Courtney, Eleanor Lewer.
Dissertation Abstracts International 37 (1976): 327A
The Introduction is a survey of trends in Chaucer criticism 1964-71. Robertson's 'Preface to Chaucer' and Jordan's 'Chaucer and the Shape of Creation' are found especially influential. The second part is an annotated bibliography of 1218 items,…
Reviews and revises Eleanor Hammond's discussions of the relations among the fifteen known manuscripts of PF, focusing on the five manuscripts of Group B and providing the evidence for relocating Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 346 in a new…
Haselwood, Dave, trans.
San Francisco: Grabborn-Hoyem, 1967.
An art-book version of ABC, limited to 1000 copies, with facing-page Middle English text taken from the Kelmscott Chaucer and verse translation into Modern English by Dave Haselwood. The font of the Middle English text derives from "lettre batarde"…
Voelker, Sarah Ray.
Piscataway, N. J.: Research & Education Association, 1995.
Study guide to the CT, with character lists, plot summaries and analyses, and study questions and answers for each tale. Also includes introductory backgrounds and suggested essay topics. Illustrated by Karen Pica. Reissued in 2003.
Bloom, Harold, ed.
New York: Bloom's Literary Criticism, 2008.
A summary/introduction to the pilgrims and plots (Part 7 excepted) of CT, with brief excerpts from fourteen critical commentaries written between 1956 and 2007; annotations of twenty-one book-length studies; and an index.
Eleven essays previously published between 1999 and 2004. Includes essays by Fiona Somerset on SumT and on clerical hypocrisy, Colin Wilcockson on GP, Katherine Little on ParsT, Lee Patterson on PrT, Elizabeth Robertson on MLT, Louise M. Bishop on…
The anti-Robertsonian introduction (pp. 1-7) argues that Chaucer's art is realistic rather than a "system of tropes." Given over to the study of "codes, conventions,...and 'language,'" criticism fails Chaucer, and modern critical approaches…
The anti-Robertsonian introduction (pp. 1-10) sees Chaucer's KnT as a "triumph of Chaucer's comic rhetoric, monistic and life-enhancing." A collection of eight previously published articles on KnT by various hands.
Wicher, Andrzej.
Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture 3 (2013): 42-57.
Discusses MerT; Boccaccio's "Decameron," 7.9; and "Sir Orfeo" as "slightly different" varieties of the enchanted-tree motif, emphasizing their structural similarities, their uses of enchantment, and the relative happiness of their endings.
The anti-Robertsonian introduction (pp. 1-7) rejects "systems of codes." If Chaucer had been writing in modern times, he would have written "The TV Evangelist's Tale." Chaucer's Pardoner is "obscenely formidable and a laughable charlatan."
Hernández Pérez, M. Beatriz.
I. Moskowich-Spiegel Fandiño, ed. Re-Interpretations [sic] of English. Essays on Literature, Culture and Film (I) ([La Coruña]: Universidade da Coruña, 2001), pp. 85-101.
Explores issues of persona, authorship, and reception in Th and Mel, focusing on the links between Tales, the Host's role, and the "evolution" of the pilgrim Chaucer.
Study guide to the CT, with synopses, character descriptions, suggestions or research papers and sample tests, backgrounds on Chaucer's life and times, and bibliography.
Cornelius, Michael G.
Jerilyn Fisher and Ellen S. Silber, eds. Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003, pp. 69-71.
The stereotypes depicted in Cecilia, the Wife of Bath, and Griselda reflect the continuing conflict between women who want to escape submissive roles and those who accommodate abusive relationships. Cornelius encourages classroom discussion of SNT,…
